2010/04/27: BBC: Reviving the spirit of RioFollowing the near collapse of the UN climate negotiations in December and the seeming paralysis of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in March, the whole idea of solving the world’s environmental problems through multilateral negotiations seems to be in crisis. But, argue Maurice Strong and Felix Dodds, another recent development holds out the promise of reversing the trend.

2010/04/28: EarthTimes: World’s top economic bodies say climate change is priorityBerlin – The heads of the world’s five top financial and economic organizations called on Wednesday for climate change to remain a key issue. The call came during a meeting hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. “The global fight against climate change must remain a top priority,” read a joint statement issued by Merkel and the heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development and the International Labour Organization. The leaders called for “substantive progress” at a climate change conference in the German city of Bonn next month, after the failure of last year’s UN summit in Copenhagen.

2010/04/27: IndiaTimes: Brazil, SA, India & China assert BASIC statusAt its third meeting in Cape Town, the BASIC group (comprising Brazil, South Africa, India and China) sought to re-establish its developing country credentials. The four advanced-developing countries made it clear that their forum was firmly anchored in the developing country bloc of G-77 and China. The BASIC group trotted out the long-held positions of developing countries on issues like common but differentiated responsibility, historical responsibility and Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, in an effort to counter the perception that the BASIC was charting a course separate from the G-77, the environment ministers floated the concept of “BASIC plus”.

2010/04/24: Yahoo:AP: South Africa hosts [BASIC] developing countries on climate talkAs the world struggles to break a deadlock in climate change negotiations, South Africa and three other influential developing nations are gathering for a strategy session to ensure poor countries are heard. Brazil, South Africa, India and China began to coalesce as a bloc at U.N. climate talks in December in Copenhagen. The group, known as BASIC, plans a high-level meeting Sunday and Monday in Cape Town.

2010/04/26: Yahoo:AFP: West Mediterranean countries unite on climate changeThe countries of the western Mediterranean Monday called for a comprehensive plan for combatting environmental blight and climate change in the region. The meeting of the so-called 5+5 countries on the western Mediterranean rim brought together the environment ministers of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania from Africa, and from Europe, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal. Malta is also a member of the informal group but was not in attendance.

2010/04/28: Eureka: Melting icebergs causing sea level riseScientists have discovered that changes in the amount of ice floating in the polar oceans are causing sea levels to rise. The research, published this week in Geophysical Research Letters, is the first assessment of how quickly floating ice is being lost today. According to Archimedes’ principle, any floating object displaces its own weight of fluid. For example, an ice cube in a glass of water does not cause the glass to overflow as it melts. But because sea water is warmer and more salty than floating ice, changes in the amount of this ice are having an effect on global sea levels. The loss of floating ice is equivalent to 1.5 million Titanic-sized icebergs each year. However, the study shows that spread across the global oceans, recent losses of floating ice amount to a sea level rise of just 49 micrometers per year — about a hair’s breadth.

2010/04/27: EarthTimes: German scientists suggest per-person carbon emission quotasGerman scientists called Tuesday for the world to accept per-person quotas for carbon dioxide emissions to kick-start a global trading scheme where poor nations will benefit. The Potsdam Institute for Research on Climate Effects said everyone on the globe should be allowed 5 tons of carbon per year. That is just one quarter of the average per-person emissions for a US citizen, but still far above emissions in poor nations.

2010/04/27: PlanetArk: Climate Debate Gets Ugly As World Moves To Curb CO2Climate scientists, used to dealing with skeptics, are under siege like never before, targeted by hate emails brimming with abuse and accusations of fabricating global warming data. Some emails contain thinly veiled death threats. Across the Internet, climate blogs are no less venomous, underscoring the surge in abuse over the past six months triggered by purported evidence that global warming is either a hoax or the threat from a warmer world is grossly overstated. A major source of the anger is from companies with a vested interest in fighting green legislation that might curtail their activities or make their operations more costly. “The attacks against climate science represent the most highly coordinated, heavily financed, attack against science that we have ever witnessed,” said climate scientist Michael Mann, from Pennsylvania State University in the United States. “The evidence for the reality of human-caused climate change gets stronger with each additional year,” Mann told Reuters in emailed responses to questions. Greenpeace and other groups say that some energy companies are giving millions to groups that oppose climate change science because of concerns about the multi-billion dollar costs associated with carbon trading schemes and clean energy policies.

2010/04/26: Eureka: Ancient artifacts revealed as northern ice patches meltScientists hope to save artifacts as ice recedesYellowknife, NT – High in the Mackenzie Mountains, scientists are finding a treasure trove of ancient hunting tools being revealed as warming temperatures melt patches of ice that have been in place for thousands of years. Tom Andrews, an archaeologist with the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife and lead researcher on the International Polar Year Ice Patch Study, is amazed at the implements being discovered by researchers. “We’re just like children opening Christmas presents. I kind of pinch myself,” says Andrews.

2010/04/29: CBC: North Pole rainfall ‘bizarre’: climatologistSpring showers are next to non-existent in the High Arctic, so Environment Canada’s senior climatologist says he’s baffled to hear that it rained near the North Pole this week. A group of British scientists working off Ellef Ringnes Island, near the North Pole, reported being hit with a three-minute rain shower over the weekend. The group reported the rain on Tuesday. Rain in the High Arctic in April is nothing short of bizarre, said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada. “My business is weird, wild and wacky weather, and this is up there among fish falling from the sky or Niagara Falls running dry,” Phillips told CBC News in an interview that aired Thursday.

2010/04/29: ABC(Au): Sea ice loss key to Arctic warming: studyThe loss of sea ice in the Arctic is the main reason why temperatures are rising much faster there than elsewhere, a new study has found. Dr James Screen and Dr Ian Simmonds from the University of Melbourne report their findings today in the journal Nature.

2010/04/26: CanWest: International accord needed to govern Arctic Ocean: WWF — Wildlife group finds ‘loopholes’ in laws, rules governing regionA World Wildlife Fund report detailing “serious gaps” in global governance of the Arctic Ocean has the influential environmental group calling for a new international accord to regulate commercial development in the rapidly transforming region. The WWF study identified numerous “loopholes” in maritime law, pollution regulation, shipping rules, fishing zones and other spheres of activity “that could allow irreparable damage to the marine environment, its biodiversity and Indigenous peoples.” The report claims there are “no clear responsibilities and mechanisms keeping marine resource extraction within sustainable limits, or for preventing and responding to pollution accidents and shipping disasters.”

2010/04/26: TerraDaily: Hunger forces mass exodus in parched NigerThe UN’s food agency doubled its aid Monday to Niger as thousands join a desperate exodus from parched farmland in western Africa’s Sahel region, where 10 million people are facing hunger. The search for food has sent thousands flocking into Maradi, the main city in south central Niger, a vast arid country on the southern rim of the Sahara desert that has become the epicentre of the crisis. As the UN’s humanitarian chief John Holmes arrived in the country on Monday, aid agencies said nearly eight million people — more than half the population — were facing food shortages.

2010/04/29: SeedDaily: Food and water drive Africa land grabRich Arab states such as Saudi Arabia have bought huge tracts of land across Africa in recent years in a bid to combat global food shortages, water scarcity and desertification and feed their burgeoning populations. But now the scramble for Africa is intensifying, with investment banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, sovereign wealth funds, corporations and business tycoons out to grab some of the world’s cheapest land — for profit. China has leased 6.91 million acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the world’s largest oil palm plantation. South Korea’s Daewoo conglomerate planned to buy 2.9 million acres of Madagascar until the deal collapsed when rioters toppled the Indian Ocean island’s government. “Philippe Heilberg, CEO of the New York-based investment fund Jarch Capital … has leased between 998,000 and 2.47 million acres in southern Sudan from the warlord Paulino Matip,” Le Monde Diplomatique reported. “Foreign direct investment in agriculture is the boardroom euphemism for the new land grab and those promoting the grab spin it as a win-win situation.”

Look out! WIPO, ACTA and the copyright cops are coming:

2010/04/28: PhysOrg: No single cause for mass die off of honey bees: OIEThe huge die off of bees worldwide, a major threat to crops depending on the honey-making insects for pollination, is not due to any one single factor, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said Wednesday. Parasites, viral and bacterial infections, pesticides, and poor nutrition resulting from the impact of human activities on the environment have all played a role in the decline, the OIE said. At normal times, bee communities naturally lose around five percent of their numbers. But with the syndrome known as colony collapse disorder (CDD), a third, half — sometimes even 90 percent — of the insects can be wiped out. In the United States, government figures released last month showed a 29 percent drop in beehives in 2009, coming on the heels of declines of 36 and 32 percent in 2008 and 2007. The mysterious decimation of bee populations in the United States, Europe, Japan and elsewhere in recent years threatens agricultural production worth tens of billions.

2010/04/30: PhysOrg: Probing Question: What is seed banking?Nearly 1,000 kilometers north of Norway stands an impressive vault. Dug deep below the permafrost into solid rock, so far north that four months out of the year the sun doesn’t shine, the vault contains some of mankind’s most precious resources, preserved at a constant minus-8 degrees Celsius. What lies inside? Gold? Irreplaceable art or fundamental human knowledge? No. These treasures are tiny, modest, unassuming: seeds. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is home to nearly half a million specimens from around the world and the most well-known example of a practice called “seed banking.”So what is seed banking, and why is it important?

2010/04/28: EurActiv: Europe’s transport emissions keep risingGreenhouse gas emissions from Europe’s transport sector continue to grow as people and goods are travelling longer distances despite the development of cleaner vehicles, which is making Europe’s transport more efficient, shows a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). The tenth edition of the EEA’s annual Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (TERM) report, published yesterday (27 April), presents a mixed picture of the transport sector’s environmental achievements in all 32 EEA countries during the period 1997-2007. The report came ahead of the publication of the EU’s strategy on clean and energy-efficient vehicles today. Greenhouse gas emissions from transport grew by 28% between 1990 and 2007 across the 32 European countries, accounting for 19% of total emissions, the data shows.

2010/04/29: ABC(Au): Sea ice loss key to Arctic warming: studyThe loss of sea ice in the Arctic is the main reason why temperatures are rising much faster there than elsewhere, a new study has found. Dr James Screen and Dr Ian Simmonds from the University of Melbourne report their findings today in the journal Nature.

2010/04/25: Reuters: Scientists uncover deep ocean current near AntarcticaScientists have discovered a fast-moving deep ocean current with the volume of 40 Amazon Rivers near Antarctica that will help researchers monitor the impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans. A team of Australian and Japanese scientists, in a study published in Sunday’s issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, found that the current is a key part of a global ocean circulation pattern that helps control the planet’s climate. Scientists had previously detected evidence of the current but had no data on it.

2010/04/30: CanWest: Biodiversity loss ‘shocking’ — Leaders failed to back commitments to protect planet: reportWorld leaders have broken their promise to slow the rate of biodiversity loss across the planet, say scientists tracking everything from vanishing languages to shrinking forests. Animal populations are down 31 per cent since 1970, shorebird populations have dropped 52 per cent, while forests have shrunk three per cent, mangroves by 19 per cent, and seagrass beds by 20 per cent, says an international team that lays out the gloomy situation in a report to be published today in the journal Science. The team points to “a few encouraging achievements” but says international leaders’ eight-year-old commitment to slow biodiversity loss by 2010 has not been met and pressures facing Earth’s biodiversity continue to mount. Human consumption of the planet’s ecological assets is still rising — and is up a whopping 78 per cent since 1970. World fisheries are in more trouble than ever with “79 per cent of fish stocks over-exploited, fully exploited, or depleted,” says lead author Stuart Butchart, a British scientist with the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre. The situation is not much better for birds, he says, with North American grassland and arid land bird populations down by almost 30 per cent.

2010/04/29: CBC: North Pole rainfall ‘bizarre’: climatologistSpring showers are next to non-existent in the High Arctic, so Environment Canada’s senior climatologist says he’s baffled to hear that it rained near the North Pole this week. A group of British scientists working off Ellef Ringnes Island, near the North Pole, reported being hit with a three-minute rain shower over the weekend. The group reported the rain on Tuesday. Rain in the High Arctic in April is nothing short of bizarre, said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada. “My business is weird, wild and wacky weather, and this is up there among fish falling from the sky or Niagara Falls running dry,” Phillips told CBC News in an interview that aired Thursday.

2010/04/27: PressEurop: Europe takes on its rising watersEven if it can’t stop the seas from rising over the course of this century, the EU is trying to stave off the disastrous consequences. Two ambitious projects have just been kicked off to save Europe’s most vulnerable coastlines.

2010/04/29: RtH: Oh, Mann: Cuccinelli targets UVA papers in Climategate salvoNo one can accuse Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of shying from controversy. In his first four months in office, Cuccinelli directed public universities to remove sexual orientation from their anti-discrimination policies, attacked the Environmental Protection Agency, and filed a lawsuit challenging federal health care reform. Now, it appears, he may be preparing a legal assault on an embattled proponent of global warming theory who used to teach at the University of Virginia, Michael Mann. In papers sent to UVA April 23, Cuccinelli’s office commands the university to produce a sweeping swath of documents relating to Mann’s receipt of nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research conducted while Mann — director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State — was at UVA between 1999 and 2005. If Cuccinelli succeeds in finding a smoking gun like the purloined emails that led to the international scandal dubbed Climategate, Cuccinelli could seek the return of all the research money, legal fees, and trebled damages.

2010/04/28: EarthTimes:UN wants modern energy access for billions by 2030The United Nations called Wednesday for access to modern energy services for some 2 billion to 3 billion people in poor countries in order to boost economic development. The new UN energy plan unveiled Wednesday also called for rich and developing countries to implement effective policies, market-based mechanisms, investment tools and regulations for energy use, which could lead to the reduction of global energy intensity by 40 per cent by 2030.

2010/04/30: ChinaDaily: Climate change mechanism set upA ministerial-level dialogue mechanism on climate change has been set up between China and the European Union, a move analysts believe will help the United Nations climate summit to be held in Mexico in December bear fruit.

2010/04/26: Reuters: Challenges to California climate change lawCalifornia’s climate change law is the most aggressive in the United States and it faces challenges this election year. Some of the same forces that may stall federal climate legislation, including oil companies and businesses concerned by higher energy prices, are now taking aim at California’s landmark 2006 law. Known as AB 32, the law includes vehicle and fuel standards, a market for pollution trade (still in the works), as well as “green” building and planning policies. Its future depends on three factors: the November governor’s race, a ballot effort to put the law on hold, and the fate of the federal climate bill.

2010/04/29: NYT:VB: ARPA-E Shells Out $106M More for Disruptive Green TechThe U.S. Department of Energy has given out $106 million more in stimulus package funds to 37 groundbreaking green technology projects under the banner of its Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (know best as ARPA-E). The money will be funneled into microbe, battery and carbon capture research. The Energy Department first announced ARPA-E funding in March, with the explicit goal of backing technologies that would reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, or, alternatively, limit the damage caused by those we still use.

2010/04/28: CSM: Cape Wind project approvedThe long-embattled Cape Wind project won federal approval today, marking a major step toward becoming the first US offshore wind-power project and paving the way for a new source of renewable energy for America. For nearly a decade, regulatory battles have pitted residents of Massachusetts’ cape and islands, Indian tribes, and influential politicians against one another and developers of the project. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar gave the green light for the project Wednesday at the Massachusetts Statehouse with Gov. Deval Patrick at his side.

2010/04/29: BBerg: Wind-Power Projects May Stall on U.K. Grid RegulationA U.K. plan to install more than 8,000 offshore wind turbines by 2020 may be delayed by a government plan to contract out work to connect the wind farms to the grid, according to Centrica Plc and E.ON AG. Regulator Ofgem has said allowing competitive bids would attract investors to the industry and curb the 15 billion-pound ($23 billion) cost of connecting 33,000 megawatts of capacity over the decade. Wind-power producers contend that awarding the work exclusively to other companies, who may lack expertise in offshore wind, could slow projects

2010/04/27: ABC(Au): Rudd deflects blame for emissions backflipPrime Minister Kevin Rudd says he has been forced to put his emissions trading scheme (ETS) on ice because of the Coalition’s opposition and the slow pace of international climate change action. Mr Rudd has confirmed the ETS has been shelved until at least 2013 so the Government can consider what the rest of the world will do beyond the expiration of the Kyoto protocol.

2010/04/27: CBC: Australia postpones carbon pollution curbsAustralian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Tuesday a two-year delay in government plans to tax the country’s worst industrial polluters — a move that puts legislative efforts to curb gases blamed for climate change on hold until after national elections. The government had proposed annual limits on the amount of carbon that major polluters can emit and supported a system whereby companies could exceed their limits if they agreed to buy carbon trading permits. Rudd said he had no choice but to put the legislation on hold after the main opposition Liberal Party withdrew its support because the UN climate change conference last December failed to agree on a legally binding treaty to cut global emissions.

2010/04/30: SMC: Experts on Australia’s move to delay ETS introductionThe delay of the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) until at least 2013 has prompted a wave of political backlash. But while it is very much a political decision, what does the back down mean for the science of climate change? Professor Andrew Blakers is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems and of the ARC Centre for Solar Energy Systems at the Australian National University, Canberra, comments…

2010/04/29: ABC(Au): ETS delay ‘could cripple energy industry’Energy suppliers say the Federal Government’s delay on its Emissions Trading Scheme could cripple the industry’s growth and threaten supply. The Energy Supply Association of Australia (ESAA) says new power projects worth $2 billion are ready to build now, but investors are waiting for a decision on the ETS.

2010/04/29: SMH: Rudd’s ETS flip-flop sparks climate chaosThe Rudd government has conceded its emissions trading scheme could be delayed beyond the 2013 election, and that the politically inspired decision to leave the country in policy limbo for at least three years will make it much more expensive for Australia to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets. Electricity generators have warned ”untenable” and uncertain climate policies from both main parties will have ”dire consequences” for investment decisions and possibly even electricity supply. The Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, told the Herald the government would not try to legislate the ETS even by its new delayed start year of 2013 unless there is ”credible action” by the end of 2012 from countries such as China, India and the US. It would also require a resolution of the Copenhagen deadlock over how national efforts are checked.

2010/04/26: CleanBreak: Has Ottawa put moratorium on conventional coal power?[…]Does this amount to a moratorium on dirty coal? It seems like it does, but the targets are pretty soft and you can bet this government will be so flexible with industry — particularly in Alberta and Saskatchewan — that the effect of this moratorium won’t be felt for a least two decades. And that, unfortunately, is too late to matter.

2010/04/26: G&M: Ottawa tells energy firms to start powering down coal-fired plantsGradual shift over the next two decades seen as a boon to natural gas producers Environment Minister Jim Prentice has told Canada’s major electricity producers that they’ll have to gradually retire their coal-fired plants and replace them with cleaner sources of power – a plan that would be a boon to natural gas producers. As the U.S. Senate struggles to deal with climate legislation, Mr. Prentice met with power company chief executives in Ottawa last week and made it clear the government intends to highlight Canada’s relative advantage in clean electricity compared to U.S. reliance on coal. Under Ottawa’s proposal, power companies would have to close their coal-fired facilities as they reach the end of their commercial life, largely over the next 10 to 15 years. The companies would not be allowed to refurbish the plants to extend their usefulness or replace them with new coal units, unless they include technology to capture the carbon dioxide and sequester it underground.

2010/04/27: CBC: Oda opens G8 meeting in HalifaxInternational Co-operation Minister Bev Oda has welcomed development ministers from around the world to a two-day meeting in Halifax in advance of the G8 leaders summit in Ontario in June.[…]“Within the scope of this G8 initiative, countries will be able to identify their own priorities,” Oda said. “Canada’s contribution to maternal and child health may involve various interventions, including family planning, which includes the use of contraceptive methods. “However, Canada’s contribution will not include funding abortion,” she said.

2010/04/27: CBC: Syncrude delays duck charges dismissal requestCrown prosecutors in Syncrude’s trial on the deaths of hundreds of ducks in a northern Alberta tailings pond will reopen their case Wednesday to allow the company’s lawyer to re-examine two witnesses. Syncrude lawyer Robert White said Tuesday he wants to question an environmental officer and a zoologist about new information that has come to light. White made the application one day after the Crown wrapped up its case at the trial, which is now in its ninth week in St. Albert Provincial Court.

2010/04/26: CBC: Syncrude lawyer to call for dismissal of chargesThe lawyer for Syncrude said he will ask that all charges against the embattled oilsands giant be dismissed when the trial resumes Tuesday. Syncrude has been charged under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act and the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act with failing to protect migratory birds from a toxic tailings pond. Defence lawyer Robert White said Monday he will argue that the prosecution has not proven its case in the April 28, 2008 incident when 1,600 ducks died on Syncrude’s Aurora tailings pond in northern Alberta.

2010/04/29: CBC: Syncrude dismissal bid rejected by judgeAn Alberta provincial court judge has rejected Syncrude’s request to dismiss the two charges it faces in the deaths of 1,600 ducks on a tailings pond north of Fort McMurray two years ago. The oilsands giant has been on trial on federal and provincial environmental charges in St. Albert since March 1.

2010/04/26: CanWest: Wind turbine threatens birds, bats — Dozens of species at risk, according to report commissioned by resortBats and migrating birds — some of them species at risk — face the greatest threat from Grouse Mountain’s green-energy wind turbine, according to an environmental report commissioned by the resort. The turbine’s threat to dozens of species of birds could be mitigated by reducing artificial illumination on the mountain on cloudy or foggy days, especially during the spring and fall migrations, the report suggests. But there might be no easy fix for bats attracted to the turbine and no way of knowing how severe the threat might be. The Vancouver Sun obtained the report through a freedom-of-information request with the district of North Vancouver.

2010/04/30: G&M: Oil sands bitumen to flow to West Coast by 2015: EnbridgeCEO isn’t fazed by environmental opposition and regulatory hurdles to North Gateway projectEnbridge Inc.’s ENB-T ambitious plan to build an oil sands pipeline to the West Coast will succeed despite opposition from first nations and environmentalists as well as concerns about pipeline overcapacity, the company’s chief executive officer says. Enbridge plans to file next month for a permit from the National Energy Board to build the North Gateway project to Kitimat, B.C., says CEO Pat Daniel. He expects the NEB process to take two years and is confident the project will be approved. If all goes according to Enbridge’s plans, Alberta bitumen would be flowing to Pacific Rim markets by 2015…

2010/04/30: CBC: TransCanada assesses Alaska pipeline interestPipeline and energy company TransCanada Corp. is soliciting producers to see if they’re interested in using the proposed Alaska Pipeline Project, a plan to bring natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to southern markets. The “open season” for the project, when potential shippers have a 90-day period to assess the project’s design, commercial terms, costs and timelines, began Friday. “The open season puts the project to a test of the market,” the company said. Shippers will take the information and decide whether to commit to using the pipeline.

2010/04/26: CCurrents: What Mother Nature Doesn’t Care About by Tim MurrayMother Nature doesn’t give a crap about our moral imperatives. She doesn’t care if people we judge to be worthy (the poor, the persecuted, the people of colour, the handicapped, the fashionably oppressed) should be lifted on to our lifeboat, only if it is overloaded. And whether the passengers live together without class barriers or in feudal subjugation is of no concern to nature either. The laws of physics trump the laws of any Holy Text, ethical system or left-wing manifesto. If we want to survive, we will have to play by nature’s rules, not ours.

2010/04/29: EarthTimes: Czechs allow power plant renovation opposed by MicronesiaPrague – The Czech Republic’s Environment Ministry gave a green light on Thursday to the renovation of a lignite-fired power plant in the country’s north, a project which has been opposed by the Pacific island country of Micronesia. The planned renovation of the Prunerov II power station by its owner, the state-controlled energy giant CEZ, made international headlines after the Federated States of Micronesia asked the Czech Republic to halt the project. Based on information from the environmental group Greenpeace, the Pacific islanders argued that the revamped plant’s greenhouse gas emissions would contribute to rising sea levels, which threaten their country’s existence.

2010/04/26: BBC: UK Coal hit by fall in productionUK Coal has announced increased losses for 2009 because of low coal prices and reduced production. The UK’s largest coal producer made a loss of £129.1m for the full year, compared with a loss of £15.6m the previous year. Revenue fell 20% from £392.5m in 2008 to £316m in what the company described as an “extremely challenging year”.

2010/04/30: CBC: Vehicle sales accelerateGlobal car sales continue to accelerate, with purchases advancing 25 per cent year-over-year during March. The latest Global Auto Report from Scotia Economics says it was the sixth consecutive double-digit increase. The bank says emerging nations are leading the way with year-over-year gains in excess of 40 per cent.

2010/04/27: WorldChanging: Giant Gravel Batteries: The Key to a Clean Energy Future?[…]Its system consists of two silos filled with a pulverized rock such as gravel. Electricity would be used to heat and pressurize argon gas that is then fed into one of the silos. By the time the gas leaves the chamber, it has cooled to ambient temperature but the gravel itself is heated to 500C.After leaving the silo, the argon is then fed into the second silo, where it expands back to normal atmospheric pressure. This process acts like a giant refrigerator, causing the gas (and rock) temperature inside the second chamber to drop to -160C. The electrical energy generated originally by the wind turbines originally is stored as a temperature difference between the two rock-filled silos. To release the energy, the cycle is reversed, and as the energy passes from hot to cold it powers a generator that makes electricity.Isentropic claims a round-trip energy efficiency of up to 80% and, because gravel is cheap, the cost of a system per kilowatt-hour of storage would be between $10 and $55.

2010/04/29: Yale360: The Greening of Silicon Valley: It Looks Like the Next Big ThingCalifornia’s high-tech giants have long used renewable energy to help power their Silicon Valley headquarters. Now, companies such as Google, Adobe Systems, and eBay are preparing for the next step — investing in off-site solar and wind installations and innovative technologies that will supply their offices and data centers with green electricity.